Coccidia prevention?

[harvestmoonfarm]

What do you all use and what are the dosages? Also, at what age do you start? I want to get my kids on a preventative this year due to the extremely wet weather we've had.

[Alice In TX/MO]

I'm using Baycox now because it is SO much easier. Start at three weeks, dose once every three weeks till weaned.

1 cc per 5 pounds.

[Backfourty,MI.]

I use Di-Methox 40%inj. given orally.
Below is a link to cocci med's & dosages except the Baycox Alice uses is not in there so follow her directions if you decide on that one.

http://www.dairygoatinfo.com/f28/coc...s-doses-21499/

[TeenyTinyFarm]

I use the Corid powder carefully measured by weight and add to a bottle of milk. I only have two babies, so I imagine if you have quite a few, this may be more of a pain in the rear.

Link for dosage by weight:http://www.goatmilkstuff.com/Coccidia-Goats.html

[southerngurl]

I also use Baycox. I give it at 3-4 weeks (depending on the time of year, if it's winter I wait longer. Because of the immunizing effect, I want to be sure all life stages of the coccidia are in the system). I will then wait 4-5 weeks for the next dose and I will probably not dose again until weaning unless there is some other stressor. I know someone who only ever gives one dose and it works well for her that way (because of the immunizing effect it has). In my herd, I know I need at least two doses for at least some of the kids. I then throw one in at weaning because that's prime time for an issue.

[Doug Hodges]

Baycox also and I give a dose to every kid I sell when it leaves my yard. So far all my babies that I've sold are still alive. I think of it as helping the newbies out.

[Awnry Abe]

**PLEASE DONT THROW STONES AT ME AS YOU READ THIS***

As a relative nube, I've been trying to find my comfort zone on coccidia prevention. In three seasons I have progressed from:

Season 1) Being all "natural" and watching one kid after another drop like flies, praying and hoping that it stops.

Season 2) Being all "natural" and when the symptoms started, trying to treat them with Baycox, only to watch most drop like flies, and those that were survived aint too spiffy today.

Season 3) Put down those rocks. This year, giving Baycox starting around the 3rd thru 6th week. And repeating every 3 weeks until ???. Probably 6 months? It's what you call a full pendulum swing. The wide range of starting dates is because I want to get everyone synced up to get a dose on the same day so I don't have a calendar full of treatments. I'll fudge it a few days in either direction to get a new kid in sync. All of the kids that were born under our breeding happened in a nice pocket of a heat cycle or so. But we've bought some bottle kids (and lambs), as well as some pregnant does. We still have 2 that are about to pop, and this flexibility has been a great help in getting them all a single dosing day that happens once every 3 weeks.

Season 4) Not sure yet. I would like to dial it back a few notches, but with dam raised meat goats, that is a challenge because I can't dictate their diet. With our dairy kids, it is easier because we are pulling them at birth. But as long as I still have both types of herds, I'll probably stay with the same protocol as this year. Coccidia season is upon us, so I'll have to wait and see how this works to see what I will change.

The reason I bring up that litany of sins is to actually shed less light on the medicinal protocol, and shed more light on what I think is too often overlooked when we discuss coccidia prevention. Filthy environment contributed to my poor results probably more so than a lack of medicinal care. Coupled with the poor management in those first two years was a more systemic issue of poor overall animal care.

I have no reasonable excuse, but quite frankly, we just tried to start too much too soon. When we bought the place going on 4 years ago, a few goats came along not long after. We plopped them in the first area that would contain them. It was full of what seemed like an impossible pile of junk to clear. And all of that junk just made their area a crud fest that was never going to be clean. I would have been ashamed to have any one of you set foot on our place. With the deaths & illnesses, the desire to be better only got stronger. We started attacking our mess one trailer load at a time. Today, it is clutter free. I can keep it clean. I can keep the bedding clean. I can rotate pens. I can also harvest manure for compost. The next big thing will be rotatable pasture. I'm sooo close. The dairy herd has a 100% built from scratch new barn with brand new fencing. Just finished 2 days ago. They no longer set foot in the old swill. But matters not, the old swill is gone and the meat goat domain is good livin for the boers. 100% of the contents of their shed was gutted. Half of it was falling to the ground. It's been replaced with a new structure. They've got pasture pens now, too. Its all good.

For me, the cocci prevention is as much about cleanliness as it is the Baycox. I am really hoping that I have fewer overall health issues in the coming years. Most of my emergencies of late have been from plain ignorance. I don't mind those too much.

[mygoat]

@Awnry, you can also feed the doe herd a rumensin added feed (20g/ton) for 4-6 weeks pre-kidding, when you start to grain the herd anyways. Continue through lactation for the doe herd. This isn't really to help the adults out any, but it WILL reduce the numbers that the doe herd are shedding into the environment. The less in the environment, the less the kids will encounter.

Also, creep feeding meat kids is usually adequate to supply them with enough medication to reduce the need to wrestle them.

Baycox in other countries has a 70 day withdrawal so here I only used it when they were 4 weeks old. Oftentimes meat kids are the ideal 40-60lbs weight for slaughter very young, so you don't want to give baycox to older kids.

I tried using baycox just once on all stock last year except my 2nd group of dairies. I'll definetely be repeating it at least monthly on keeper stock, that's for sure. Last years early kids didn't grow like I"m used to. The dairy girls barely made breeding weight on time. As for as immunity, baycox doesn't really do anything in and of itself to increase immunity. Waiting till about 4 weeks of age to give the first dose should allow the goat kids to be exposed and THUS develop the proper immune system response to coccidia. In studies, a good immune defense against coccidia takes up to 6 months to develop, so practicing continual protection against coccidia is suggested until around then. Personally here I keep doing it if they're less than 50lbs or so, because after that it gets expensive and they SHOULD be eating enough medicated feed at that point to take care of it.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Dear Awnry Abe,
You are a breath of fresh air. What a wonderful, from the heart, revealing post.

May you, your family, and all your goats live long and prosper.

Huggs,
Alice

[aart]

How does giving cocci meds for 6 months 'build immunity'?

Do the meds just knock down the numbers rather than totally eradicate the organism, allowing the animal to be exposed a smaller amount of the organism and thus 'build immunity' to it rather than being killed by it?

Sorry for the 'newb' Q...I've been reading here to learn for more than a year but that one has just never sunk in.

[coso]

aart, Yep that is kind how it works. You just don't want an overload that causes intestinal scarring. You want to keep numbers low so that they grow well but at the same time build an immunity. All goats have cocci kids just have trouble keeping the number down. A lot of new goat owners poo poo this, but as time passes and cocci becomes more prevalent in the ground, you start having problems. It can kind of sneak up on you if you are not observant, or vigilant.

[copperpennykids]

Originally Posted by coso

aart, Yep that is kind how it works. You just don't want an overload that causes intestinal scarring. You want to keep numbers low so that they grow well but at the same time build an immunity. All goats have cocci kids just have trouble keeping the number down. A lot of new goat owners poo poo this, but as time passes and cocci becomes more prevalent in the ground, you start having problems. It can kind of sneak up on you if you are not observant, or vigilant.

Exactly! Everyone should read this in order to have an understanding of what you are trying to accomplish with cocci prevention.

A few comments: While it is true that Boer kids can eat a feed that has rumensin in it to help with cocci prevention, they are not eating enough of it until about 8 weeks of age to get the benefits. So we cocci (okay cocci prevent) our kids at 3 weeks and at 6 weeks. If we had an overload problem such as the midwest and south we would do it longer, even with the rumensin feed.

What Awnry said is also spot on: Intelligent herd management goes a long way - not just for cocci, but for worms and lice etc. Try to move your kids to clean ground as much as possible. BUT do not rotate your kids (and mothers) in such a way that the 3 week old kids are moving into a pen that was just vacated by the 6 week old kids (lots of folks doing dairy kids do just that). Because now the younger set is living where the older set just shed a whole bunch of cocci - and other parasites. Many folks say the later kids don't do as well as the early born kids - and while cold weather is a factor (for holding the nasties at bay), some of it can be attributed to the "rotation" and/or dirty ground factor.

Finally, we have used both the Dimethox 40% and the Baycox with excellent results. For Boer kids we live the Baycox as we only have to give those kids a one time dose - 3 doses of Dimethox really makes them run for the hills when they see us coming. ;D (As you can see, we don't have a pressing cocci issue with only having to go 3 days, rather than 5, but we have observed an overall benefit to cocci prevention and will continue to follow the protocol).

BTW, we use the Baycox at 1cc/10lbs. So far so good.